​You may not realize you are pregnant until well into your first trimester. During this period your body is dealing with many hormonal changes.

Fatigue
Nausea
Vomiting
Mood swings
Tender and/or swollen breasts
Heartburn
Headaches
Weight gain or loss
Need to urinate more often

One, all or none of these symptoms may be experienced and if this is not your first pregnancy, the symptoms may be completely different! Nausea is the most common issue during the first trimester which can be helped by eating small, low fat meals and drinking plenty of water.

We are so very delighted to have been fortunate and blessed enough to have seen our 17,000th patient at the practice!  Where has the time gone?!  All those lovely women and children patients, what a tremendous privilege and pleasure to have been able to serve them. A personal and Practice milestone indeed.  A huge thank you to all involved.

​Leap yoga in Folsom is offering a Pregnancy Health Day

Date: February 19th, 2023
Time: 1 pm – 3 pm
Investment: $30 advance registration / $35 walk-in

With the much anticipated arrival of baby and your body’s rapidly changing needs, do you find yourself wanting a more personalized movement, mindfulness and health practice?
Start your pregnancy journey off right this year and navigate optimal wellness for you and the lifelong health of your baby.

RECEIVE WELL ROUNDED SUPPORT FOR YOUR PREGNANCY HEALTH
… with some professionally guided reproductive health practices that serve you and the future of your family. Future mommas at all gestation stages and partners welcome!

With LEAP’s Pregnancy Health Day, comfortably be guided with …

•A gentle 60-min prenatal yoga class, complete with breathwork that promotes mindfulness to deepen the connection between you and baby
•Speakers Laura Porterfield, Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist with Well Woman Physical Therapy as well Kristianne Solaris, Fertility & Pregnancy Health Specialist with Mind Baby Wellness.
• Local Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Grace with Grace Mental Health
•Unique baby&me and seasonal health vendors and NURTURE Birth Nonprofit Cooperative

Join us at LEAP YOGA for this Pregnancy Health Day and connect with other local mommas in person (finally!). As always, we are looking forward to guiding you into a deeper yoga and wellness practice.

BONUS: Upon participation, receive private access to a soon-to-be mom’s Pregnancy Health community. Biweekly lives on all things pregnancy health including nutrition and mindfulness practices.

For more information and to sign up: https://leapyoga.net/2023/01/pregnancy-health-day-23/

​After many years of service, we have replaced our ultrasound machine with a new updated all singing all dancing model. It's all terribly exciting to see such incredibly detailed images and so much fun to use! It feels like using a “scanner” from Star Trek! We can now better look inside our patients using this wonderful technology to help them be in better health. Heady stuff indeed!

#lovetechnology #obgyn #ladydocfolsom #ruthhaskinsmd

​
We wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy holiday period and to let you know that we will be closed Christmas eve, Friday December 24th and closing a little early at 3pm on New Year's Eve.

Happy Holidays!!!

We are so proud to have served 15,000 patients as of October 26th 2021. A huge milestone in the history of The Practice and we can't wait to serve another 15,000!
Thank you to everyone that has made it possible and to our wonderful patients for making it happen!

From June 1st and going forward, non essential appointments and annual examinations will resume following CDC guidelines. 

As I am sure you are aware, the visiting of a health care professional for medical or dental care was only permissible for chronic conditions or preventive services. 
As announced April 29th in Governor Newsom's phased reopening plan, and subsequently sanctioned locally; Healthcare providers will now be able to reschedule appointments canceled for all non urgent care at the time of the Public Health Order issuance. This change also includes elective and preventative procedures such as general care and immunizations.

We look forward to seeing you, while ensuring you utmost care and safety.

1. Stick to a sleep schedule.  Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day.  As creatures of habit, people have a hard time adjusting to changes in sleep patterns.  Sleeping later on weekends won’t fully make up for a lack of sleep during the week and will make it harder to wake up early on Monday morning.  Set an alarm for bedtime.  Often, we set an alarm for when it’s time to wake up but ail to do so for when it’s time to go to sleep.  If there is only one piece of advice you remember and take from these twelve tips, this should be it.
2. Exercise is great, but not too late in the day.  Try to exercise at least thirty minutes on most days, but not later than two to three hours before your bedtime.
3. Avoid caffeine and nicotine.  Coffee, colas, certain teas and chocolate contain the stimulant caffeine, and its effects can take as long as 8 hours to wear off fully.  Therefore, a cup of coffee in the late afternoon can make it hard for you to fall asleep at night.  Nicotine is also a stimulant, often causing smokers to sleep only very lightly.  In addition, smokers often wake up too early in the morning because of nicotine withdrawal.
4. Avoid alcoholic drinks before bed.  Having a nightcap or alcoholic beverage before sleep may help you relax, but heavy use robs you of REM sleep, keeping you in the lighter stages of sleep.  Heavy alcohol ingestion also may contribute to impairment in breathing at night.  You also tend to wake up in the middle of the night when the effects of the alcohol have worn off.
5. Avoid large meals and beverages late at night.  A light snack is okay, but a large meal can cause indigestion, which interferes with sleep.  Drinking too many fluids at night can cause frequent awakenings to urinate.
6. If possible, avoid medicines that delay or disrupt your sleep.  Some commonly prescribed heart, blood pressure or asthma medications, as well as some over-the-counter and herbal remedies for coughs, colds, or allergies, can disrupt sleep patterns.  If you have trouble sleeping, talk to your doctor or pharmacist to see whether any drugs you’re taking might be contributing to your insomnia and ask whether they can be taken at other times during the day or early in the evening.
7. Don’t take naps after 3 pm.  Naps can help make up for lost sleep, but late afternoon naps can make it harder to fall asleep at night.
8. Relax before bed.  Don’t overschedule your day so that no time is left for unwinding.  A relaxing activity, such as reading or listening to music, should be part of your bedtime ritual.
9. Take a hot bath before bed.  The drop in body temperature after getting out of the bath may help you feel sleepy, and the bath can help you relax and slow down so you’re more ready to sleep.
10. Dark bedroom, cool bedroom, gadget-free bedroom.  Get rid of anything in your bedroom that might distract you from sleep, such as noises, bright lights, an uncomfortable bed or warm temperatures.  You sleep better if the temperature in the room is kept on the cool side.  A TV, cell phone or computer in the bedroom can be a distraction and deprive you of needed sleep.  Having a comfortable mattress and pillow can help promote a good night’s sleep.  Individuals who have insomnia often watch the clock.  Turn the clock’s face out of view so you don’t worry about the time while trying to fall asleep.
11. Have the right sunlight exposure.  Daylight is key to regulating daily sleep patterns.  Try to get outside in natural sunlight for at least thirty minutes each day.  If possible, wake up with the sun or use very bright lights in the morning.  Sleep experts recommend that, if you have problems falling asleep, you should get an hour of exposure to morning sunlight and turn down the lights before bedtime.
12. Don’t lie in bed awake.  If you find yourself still awake after staying in bed for more than 20 minutes, or if you are starting to feel anxious or worried, get up and do some relaxing activity until you feel sleepy.  The anxiety of not being able to sleep can make it harder to fall asleep.

NIH Medline Plus (Internet). Bethesda, MD:  National Library of Medicine (US); summer 2012.  Tips for Getting a Good Night’s Sleep.  
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/magazine/issues/summer12/articles/summer12pg20.html

​For additional information visit my site: www.ruthhaskinsmd.com